Read Online Infected: Lesser Evils by Andrea Speed - Free Book Online Page A

wrong.”
    “You’re wrong.”
    “Mean it.”
    He swept back his damp hair and glared at him through a scrim of water and steam. “I wouldn’t, okay? Now will you hand me a towel?”
    “No, not until you tell me what’s going on with you.”
    “You’re really going to keep me trapped in a shower?” He sighed irritably, then figured what the hell, and told him about the progression of the virus. If he didn’t tell him, it was likely Dee would anyways.
    Dylan seemed to listen impassively, not moving, not reacting until he was done. “Well, you’re just feeling self-pitying to believe that,” he claimed, getting up and grabbing a towel off the bar. “You’ll never be a full-time lion.”
    He seemed really certain of that. “How do you know?”
    “Because you couldn’t be a smartass as a lion. You live to annoy the shit out of people, Ro. You can’t do that as well as a cat.”
    He had a point there, he could hardly deny it. It probably didn’t work like that, but he could hardly argue with him. He turned off the shower and got out, and Dylan gave him the towel. As he dried his hair, Dylan asked, “So that’s why you won’t touch me? You’re afraid of lioning out?”
    “I’m afraid it wants you dead.”
    “What if it does? Are you going to stand for that? Does it think nothing’s going to happen to it if something happens to me?”
    That was a good point, but it only distracted him for a moment. “That’s logic. I don’t think that applies to a cat.”
    “But it must understand self-preservation. You’re still sharing a body, and if it does something to me, are you going to let it pass?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Okay then, we should be okay.”
    Roan scrubbed the towel over his head before looking at him curiously. “Why are you not worried about this?”
    “It’s you. You’re not going to hurt me.”
    He sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not me we’re talking about—”
    Dylan grabbed his face in his hands and kissed him, a full-on, passionate kiss. It was a little too nice for his not-quite-numb libido, so he reluctantly pushed him away. “No, okay, no. I’m not risking your life gambling on a lion being sensible.”
    “It’s because you bit me too hard that one time, right?”
    “Yes! You can’t tell me you’d like me ripping out your throat.”
    He considered that a moment. “It wants blood?”
    “I told you what it wants.”
    “But blood makes it happy?”
    “I—I don’t know what makes it happy. I need a cat whisperer or a virus whisperer or something.”
    Dylan did the strangest thing. He bit his bottom lip. That wasn’t strange in itself, as he often bit his lip while thinking, but this time he bit it until he broke the skin, until it started to bleed, a teardrop of blood welling on his lower lip. “Let’s give it a little something to shut it up, shall we?” He grabbed Roan again, and this time when he kissed him his lips were slick with blood. On one level, it was incredibly creepy and gross.
    Of course, the lion loved it. It responded eagerly to the taste of Dylan’s blood, and while Roan was fighting the impulse to tear into him, increase the flow of blood, he also found himself responding to him like a regular Human. It didn’t help that he was cold and Dylan was oh so warm. There was a growl/purr in the base of his throat as he pushed him back into the bedroom, sucking at his lower lip. Roan hated the taste of blood—his own more than anyone else’s—and yet it tasted so good; maybe it was just Dylan’s blood that tasted so good. All that vegetarianism and healthy living may have made his blood cleaner than most, or at least that’s what Roan told himself. The blood made him feel intoxicated, hot under the skin.
    They ended up having the most intense and somewhat violent sex Roan had ever had, and afterward he was filled with mixed feelings about it. Of course it felt good (god, had he missed sex), but the taste of blood was tacky in his mouth (both